The Prince of Time
by Paladin of Farore
Summary: When Regina returns home from Gold's shop after the return of Emma and Snow, she finds Henry waiting for her. But not the Henry she knows, a Henry seventeen years old, from the future. As Cora and Hook arrive in Storybrooke, Emma, Regina, and their allies must join with this familiar time traveler if their to survive the dark battles he knows are just on the horizon.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay guys, if you've read my story The Grey Prince, I'm sorry to say I won't be continuing it. Instead, there's this story, which has basically the same plot as that one, except that it's modified to be in canon with the winter finale. Hope you guys like it. Please Review! Reviews are the lifeblood that keeps writers alive! Sort of…**

It was with a somber step and a wounded heart that Regina found herself walking home alone down Storybrooke's mostly empty streets.

The sounds of celebration of revelry could be heard from Granny's a few blocks down. There Snow White and her entourage would be eating, drinking, and partying themselves silly in the name of the day's victory. Their savior and her mother had returned home safely at last. No doubt the Evil Queen's absence was the farthest thing from their minds. Why on earth would they care what she was up to? It wasn't as if she'd been integral in their return, or had saved them from a horrendously painful death on their way through the portal.

Regina felt a rueful smile curl her lips. Honestly, what had she been expecting? To be welcomed into the ranks of the 'heroes' with open arms? Of course not. Though it wasn't as if she actually wanted to associate herself with the dwarves, werewolves and cretins her stepdaughter called friends. But nonetheless, her heart had been filled with a brief flicker of hope.

"_I was right" _Henry's voice rang in her mind. _"You really have changed." _

He'd hugged her then, wrapping his arms around her middle in a gesture that nearly had her weeping for joy right then and there in Gold's shop for all to see. She wouldn't have minded, she was so happy. For weeks now she'd feared that her son was forever lost to her, yet now he showed her the first genuine sign of open affection since he'd gotten hands on the accursed book of fairytales that had cemented her in his mind as an evil monarch.

Her heart had been crushed shortly thereafter.

Of course he'd left her to join his biological mother and her parents to celebrate without her.

Why would he invite her out to eat when he had Snow White and Prince Charming to dote on him?

With each click of her heels down the sidewalk, she fought the tears building up against the floodgates of her eyes. It seemed no matter what she did, it wouldn't ever really matter. She had been replaced. Henry had a new family to love him, and she'd been left alone to mull over the feelings that slowly tore at her soul from within.

Nightfall was beginning to fall across the humble Maine hamlet. Passing cars had their headlights switched on, businesses were beginning to close down for the day, and spattering's of children chased each other in droves, playing away the last few hours remaining between the end of the school day and the arrival of suppertime.

All of it made Regina feel sick. Angry, disgusted. Things had reverted to the way they were just before the curse. The smallfolk of the kingdoms were happy amongst their families and friends, enjoying the simple pleasures of a life filled with love and acceptance while she alone had her happy ending ripped away from her and was left to her misery.

No matter, she told herself firmly, schooling her face to a cool collected state free of cumbersome emotion. She had more important things to worry about at the moment. Like her mother.

Cora may have been prevented from coming through the portal, but Regina knew better than to think that was the end of it. It was far, far from it. She knew her mother better than anyone. Cora would find a way through. Somehow, somewhere, she would make it to Storybrooke, and when she did, everyone would be in danger. Everyone. Henry included.

A pulse of barely surprised anger shot up Regina's spine. Anger intermingled with cold, hard fear.

Of all the complex feelings that chased one another like ravenous beasts through her mind, those regarding her mother were without a doubt the most polarizing.

Since Daniels death so, so long ago, Cora had done everything in her power to destroy everything she held dear and to trap her in an existence devoid of all happiness, married to a man she did not love, and forced to mother the girl responsible for the death of her beloved.

She'd had been trying to live out her own ambitions through her daughter. Ambitions of power and status that had never once crossed Regina's mind during her youth. She hadn't dreamed of power. She'd dreamed of love and marriage and children, of a life with Daniel.

In the end fate had shown that it held her in the highest of contempt, and had seen fit to tear these dreams to piece with Cora as its grizzly tool.

Despite everything however, Regina still loved her mother. Somewhat at least. It was entirely irrational, she knew. By all means she should despise her with her entire being and want for nothing more than to end her. But a remnant of a daughter's love still stained her heart like a troublesome splattering of blood across pure white canvas. It couldn't be removed.

Yet these feeling meant little to nothing at the moment. They wouldn't prevent Cora from doing what she'd always done, destroying everything in her path.

Love was weakness, as she'd always said. And her unstoppable rampage would only be ended when she'd stripped her daughter of every bit of 'weakness' she could sniff out. Namely, Henry. The one she loved above all else.

Unless that was, Regina ended her first.

Defeating Cora would prove an incredible challenge, even for a witch as powerful as the fear Evil Queen. But she was determined to do it with or without Rumpelstiltskin's aide.

Approaching the front door to her home Regina slipped the key into its hole, turned, and pushed inside.

Immediately upon entering she knew something was off. A crackle of magical energy hung heavily in the air, so thickly that just a whiff of it made Regina's hackles shot up like spears. Through the archway into the sitting room she could see an abundance of loose papers swirling inches above the ground as if carried by a low flowing wind.

From within the study the sounds of labored breathing could be heard.

Regina tensed dangerously.

With but the flick of the wrist fire crackled between her fingers, hot and deadly.

Some fool with a bit of magical talent had invaded her home it seemed. And they would be dealt with swiftly.

In three strides Regina was in the sitting room doorway. Hardly glancing at the figure sitting in the shambled remains of the coffee table and heaps of ruined books she used her free hand to lift them into the heir, limbs encased in telekinetic bonds.

"Well hello there" he said almost cheerfully. "I was wondering when you'd get back. Sorry about the mess. My portal sort of exploded outwards when it dissipated. Don't worry, I'll fix everything though." He smiled. "It's good to see you."

Regina's eyes narrowed. The figure floating a few feet above the furniture wreckage was a teenaged boy, probably around sixteen or seventeen considering the light dusting of facial hair across his chin.

His hair was a chestnut brown, and his eyes were an eerily familiar hue that the former queen couldn't quite place where she'd seen before. These details however were overshadowed by the boy's attire.

Almost the entirety of his body was covered in silvery armor consisting of shiny steel plates connected at the joints by dark iron bolts. Chainmail could be seen peeking out of the space between plates, and a sword in a scabbard hung at his belt.

Just before the heart laid a heavy metal kite shield, whose surface was painted with an intricate sigil painted on it's surface. Beneath it was secured a bulging rucksack tied off with a length of rope.

"Who are you?" Regina demanded icily. The fire in her fist intensified.

A brow crept up the boy's forehead. He laughed.

"You really don't recognize me. That's understandable I guess. I am at least twice as tall as I was before, and my voice has dropped. But really…._you _of all people can't tell it's me?" He sounded disappointed. His gaze drifted above Regina's head and stayed there a moment, transfixed. "There still there… 'course they are. The damn viewings never lie do they?" His face became a mask of the utmost sadness, smile turning to a frown.

Suddenly he sputtered for breath as an unseen hand wrapped itself firmly around his throat, squeezing tightly.

"Answer the question" Regina snapped. "You'll find that I have no patience for games, boy. So please, tell me who you are and why it is you deemed it wise to enter my home uninvited?" She let up on her choking grip a tad. Just enough to let him speak.

"I had to come to you first, you know" he half gurgled through his constrained windpipe. "Had to. I could've gone to Emma, to my dad, even the Blue Fairy. They'd of been good options considering all the crap that's about to go down around here. But I had to see you again. It had to be you. Do you really not know who I am? It's me….mom. It's Henry."

The force gripping his neck tightened severely.

"You _do_ have a death wish" Regina seethed. Burglars, even magical ones apparently, had no common sense when it came to not pissing off a powerful sorceress.

Then, out of nowhere, Regina felt her grip lessen slightly, being challenged. A faint glowing radiated from the boy's irises. He had magic as well, and was prying her off his throat.

"You're awfully violent for someone who's supposed to be swearing off magic. It's okay. You've had sort of a rough day. That's partially my fault. I'm sorry, leaving you alone to go to dinner with the others. That was awful of me. I was just a kid. I didn't understand I was hurting your feelings. I-"

"Enough!" Regina interrupted him, furious. "You come into my home, destroy my possessions, and then claim to be my ten year old son? I have to say, of all the petty scum I've dealt with, you're perhaps the boldest. Pity you'll be dead soon. Your magic is almost admirable, loosening my hold on you like that. Oh well. Goodbye."

She raised her hand to incinerate the boy once and for all. But she couldn't. Midway through the motion of flinging the fistful of fire, her arm was frozen midair. Suddenly she was completely immobilized. A faint aura surrounded her entire body and he couldn't move.

The telekinesis holding the boy broke completely, and he fell to the ground where he staggered for a moment before regaining his composure.

"For the record I could've done that at any time. You've got decades of experience on me but in terms of raw power I have you beat by a teeny bit. I can prove who I am by the way, that I'm Henry, Henry from the future. Now I know what you're thinking" he said just as Regina was about to let loose with a stream of curses, and magically sealed her mouth over.

"Time travel magic doesn't exist. It hasn't ever existed, and anyone who says otherwise is just rehashing old wives tales. Two words mom. The Chronos Invictus ritual, found in old scrolls in an old library buried beneath the deserts outside Agrabah. I have 'em in my bag. Gonna need 'em for the return trip back home." He paused for a moment, thinking.

"Oh right, proving it's me. Almost forgot about that. When I was four I threw a tantrum because I was moving up a year in school. You told me it would be good to be with kids my own age. I was four, my friends were still three. The first in a long line of lies you told me growing up, which include making me think I was insane…." He trailed off for a moment.

Why'd I travel back in time? Because I remember it. I remember today, from the perspective of my ten year old self. I remember meeting an older me, looking just like this" he gestured to his armored attire. He glanced up at the clock hanging on the wall. "Speaking of which, I have to get going. If I remember things correctly, and I do, then right about now little me is at the diner having a seizure. My magic is manifesting for the first time. Not fun seeing as I have absolutely no control." He paused, and his face once again took on the utmost seriousness.

"I'm going to leave you here, okay? Cora and Hook made it here through another portal. There about half a mile out in the harbor, and they'll be here anytime. You're not ready to face her. Not yet." He glanced up, gazing out the nearby window in anticipation.

" I love you mom. Remember that, okay? I've forgiven you…for everything. Younger me'll take some time, but he'll come around eventually. Trust me, I know, because I remember it that way. We'll talk later, okay mom? See you in a bit. Love you."

Reaching down he swung the rucksack over his shoulder and strapped the shield to his forearm. Coming close, he pressed a kiss to Regina's forehead before leaning back a moment, looking her in the eyes. Even in her constrained straight, Regina felt herself tremble beneath his gaze. This really was Henry. Despite the blatant impossibility of his presence, he truly was. He had Henry's eyes, Henry's tone, and the same way of looking at and speaking to her that it made her heart melt.

And then like that the adolescent Henry sprinted out of the sitting room, drawing his sword as he went. Regina heard the telltale sound of the front door swinging shut behind him, and was left completely alone once again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry this took so long guys. I've been on break for about a week, but it's been really hard for me to get myself to write. This chapter felt really awkward to me, tell me whatcha think. That, and there's been a boatload of family drama at my house lately. So, happy Reading. Please Review!**

Emma couldn't help but smile as the party unfolded around her.

Her whole body ached something terrible. Her muscles were strained, bruises peppered her forearms from her short lived duel with Hook, and a migraine was tunneling its way through her skull, yet still she smiled.

A day ago she had been camping in the enchanted forest with her mother, Sleeping Beauty and an oriental warrior, doing battle with a Disney pirate and Regina's power mad sorceress of a mother, so basically Regina aged a few years and with a more developed sense of violent destruction. If that were possible.

And now, after all the adventuring and all the danger, she and Snow were back in Storybrooke. With their family.

Family.

The word still sounded odd in her mind, let alone on her lips. For her entire life family had been but a foreign concept to her, a golden treasure held just out of reach by circumstance and the hellish bureaucracy of the foster system. Yet now here she was sitting in a diner booth in Maine. Her son was all but glued to her side, head burrowed into her shoulder, and her parents sat across from them, faces glowing warmly.

They weren't a traditional family by any means. She hadn't raised Henry for the first ten years of his life, and her parents were roughly the same age as her. Younger, even. They hadn't had time for that conversation yet. Going through little details like age, what they were going to do next, and the strange magic light that had kept Cora from taking her heart could wait for later.

For now, all Emma wanted to do was lay back relax and bask in the presence of her friends and loved ones.

By now the festivities were in full swing. News of the return of Snow White and the savior had spread through the small town like wildfire, and within half an hour the place was packed wall to wall with those wishing to welcome them back.

"I have to say" she said, taking a sip of cinnamon laced cocoa. "I've been to some wild parties in my day. But this is just nuts."

Her statement was punctuated by three of the dwarves going tumbling over a nearby table to the explosive laughter of the party goers. Even Granny, who usually ran her business with an iron fist and wolf-like fang guffawed at the clumbsy display, her wrinkled face growing pink from wine consumption. Thankfully her crossbow was safety locked away in the back room.

Snow grinned.

"This is nothing. You wouldn't believe what the boys have gotten up to when they're drinking. Red too. It takes a lot to get her drunk, what with her wolf's blood and all, but when she's put one too many away she's a firecracker." A brow crept up the blonde forehead.

"Well then, I look forward to the next fairy tale rave." She took another sip of cocoa before turning to Henry. "So what have you been up to kid? I heard something about sword lessons."

"Yeah!" Henry piped, voice brimming with enthusiasm. "It's really awesome! By this time next year, I'll be slaying dragons." His grin was almost manic with glee.

Emma shot her father a questioning but amused look.

"Don't get carried away there, kiddo" Charming chuckled along with Snow. "I've just been teaching him basic stances and techniques. With wooden swords of course. Nothing too extreme. We're still years away from using live-steel. No need to worry."

"I'm not worried" Emma said. "If there's any kid you can trust with a sword it's this one" she ruffled his hair playfully. "Actually, I was going to ask you to teach me, David. With all the crap going on around here, it seems like it'd be a good thing to learn. Snow showed me a thing or two, but I'm still probably more likely to cut my own head of

than fight someone off."

"Didn't you fight off Captain Hook?" Henry asked. He was excited beyond belief at the prospect of having her as a fellow student, but his mind was still reeling from the cliff notes version of her adventures. She'd have to go into greater detail later. He would demand it of her.

"That was just luck, kid. If he hadn't been bragging he would've had me. So what do ya say, David? Have time to teach one more?"

Her tone was light and cheery, but Charming could feel the underlying meaning, and strain, beneath the question. He smiled, eyes going downward for a moment. He could understand what she was doing here. She was throwing him a bone. A peace offering between the two of them to break the invisible tension that was threatening to snap at any moment.

Their relationship before the curse's breaking had been a strained one at best. It was no secret that she hadn't really been David Nolan's biggest fan, seeing as he'd made a habit of breaking her best friend's heart, as accidental as it was.

Now, suddenly, they were father and daughter, and neither of them knew what to do about it. They didn't have the luxury of the close friendship Emma had shared with Mary-Margaret before their memories were returned. All they had was the tension, which wasn't really much to build a stable relationship off of.

Thus Emma's request for sword lessons. David appreciated it greatly. Far more than she could ever really know. It was evident in her expressions, her simple mannerisms that so resembled his own, that she was trying so very hard to make this work. That was about all he could ask for really. Nothing could get them back the twenty-eight years they'd missed, but it was a start.

"Of course" he said, smile widening. "Though I don't know how much I can teach you. I saw the dragon you killed under the library. Or what's left of it anyway."

"You went down to see it?" Charming nodded

"Had to get my sword back somehow" he tapped the weapon hanging at his belt. Again he smiled. "Dear Gods it's good to have you two back."

"It's good to be back" Snow said, nuzzling closer. "Now maybe we can finally have a little peace and quiet."

She didn't say anything, but those words made something twist in Emma's stomach. You never said something like that aloud. Ever. It was practically asking for catastrophe to punch you in the face right then and there. Hard. Subconsciously she peered over her shoulder, half expecting a manticore or some twisted fantastical creature to come screaming out of the shadows. Perfectly understandable considering the last few weeks.

"Can I show you some stuff now, mom?" Henry asked eagerly, still full of energy despite the growing darkness outside the diner windows. He reached into the backpack at his feet for his practice sword but Emma caught him by the hand.

"Maybe later kid" she told him wearily, heart still swelling at being addressed as _mom._. "But I'm totally beat. Tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure" Henry said, slipping the sword back into place. There was only the slightest hint of disappointment in his voice, though it was understanding disappointment. However his young mind was quick to move on to new things, so he asked.

"Did you really get attacked by an ogre?"

Emma stiffened in embarrassment.

"Yeah. Almost had me too."

Henry's brow wrinkled in confusion.

"Why didn't you aim for the eyes?" The blonde sheriff groaned in exasperation.

"How is it that I'm the only one who didn't know that?" she asked to no one in particular.

"It's in the book" Henry said cheekily. "Maybe you should actually read it instead of skimming. Might be a little helpful." He was full out grinning now, and Emma couldn't help but return the gesture. The kid had a right to say 'I told you so' a few dozen times or so.

"Point taken, kid." Her mouth kept moving as if she was saying something else, but whatever it was, Henry didn't hear a syllable.

A strange tingling had started building on his hand, growing outward from the point where Emma had touched him. Similar sensations were starting up all over his body. His cheek where she'd kissed him upon their reunion. His other hand that had grazed her cheek during their hug, the back of his neck that she'd gripped in the embrace.

Words couldn't really describe it. Like a sort of ambient electricity pulsing through his very skin.

Then the energy started pulsing not from his skin inward, but from his core outward, filling him to the brim.

Slowly his vision began to blur to the point of incomprehension. Crackling splinters of light shot across his line of sight. The world began to spin, and that's when things truly fell out of his control. Painful spasms shot down his arms. He could feel the energy, invisible but nonetheless powerful, flow from the tips of his fingers.

Plates of food were sent flying off the table. Chairs, some of which were still occupied, were launched upward to shatter against the ceiling. The front windows of the building exploded in a shower of glassy shards. Random objects across the diner were flung in all directions. The burners of the stove behind the counter suddenly flared, the flames blooming upward. Then he himself started floating, lifted from the bench by an unseen hand.

Vaguely Henry could hear partygoers wail in horror as they leapt from their seats. Beside him, he could hear his mother yelling his name and tugging at his arm, but the sound washed over him almost completely unnoticed. The pain ripping through his body was too intense, the screams escaping his mouth too loud.

He was in his own little world. Unreachable.

Then just as suddenly as it had blurred, his vision returned to full clarity. It was better than normal. The tiniest details were now sharp and clear, the shards of glass littering the floor, the beads of sweat sliding down faces, the smell of French fry oil thick in the air. All was evident to his enhanced senses.

Like a spark being struck into life new sights appeared before him, thrice as clear and painted in the most vivid of colors.

Above the diner's heads images of vast variety and shape floated and spun.

A red wolf ran circles around Jiminy's head. A crushed fang hung loosely above Granny's, and above baby Alexandra spun a broken tiara.

Turning his head, which was painful in his current state, Henry saw something else above his grandparents. A lion cub with golden fur prancing in a field of flowers.

The meaning of the images came flooding to the young boy's mind. Not for all of them, the lion cub remained a mystery, yet for others it was clear as day.

Jiminy was going to, if he hadn't already, fall in love with Red. Granny was going to fall in battle. What battle, he couldn't say. And little Alexandra, someday in the burgeoning of her adolescence, was going to fall in love with someone not befitting her status as a princess. Not a peasant or a commoner, but a girl. And she was going to face a terrible, terrible choice.

"HENRY!"

Emma's voice came bursting through the cacophony of color and thoughts that was clouding his consciousness. Terrified worry seethed from her words.

"Mom? Wha-" he mumbled, turning to face her. He couldn't say anything more than that. Because when she came into view, he was all but blinded by what he saw.

Light. The brightest, purest white light he'd ever seen, emanating from her every pore. More than a dozen images spun unseen beneath the light's haze. He couldn't make them out, let alone their meanings. Yet their presence alone started his limbs shaking again.

They reeked of meaning he couldn't see. Reeked of a destiny and a fate beyond his understanding. He was going to cry out, one last yell before he collapsed in an exhausted heap, but just then a large pair of metal covered hands placed themselves over his eyes.

"It's alright kid" a voice said in his ear. "Everything's going to be okay. I know what you're seeing. A lot to take in, isn't it? Well don't worry, you don't have to deal with it all at once. Just wait a second." The voice stopped, and Henry felt something clunky and metal being secured around his wrist.

Everything stopped all at once. The pulsing in his body, the flurry of images and meanings in his mind, even the floating that had him several feet above his chair stopped, causing him to drop back down with a thud.

Opening his eyes, Henry looked down at his wrist. He was now wearing a thick metal bracelet with intricate runes carved delicately into the metal. Where it touched his skin felt like a dead zone of energy. Whatever the bracelet was, it was keeping whatever had just happened at bay.

Looking up he could see the whole diner in disarray. Tables knocked over, food on the floor and walls, and crowds of displaced people whose gaze was locked on the figure standing just behind them. Henry turned, and gasped.

The person who'd placed the bracelet on him was tall and lanky, not quite a full grown man but by no means a boy. His hair was a brown and shaggy mane that fell almost to his shoulders. That wasn't really what caught Henry's eye though. Covering the newcomers body was silvery armor interlaced with a suit of chainmail worn underneath. He wore large gauntlets of interconnected metal plates. A sword hung at his waist, and a shield was strapped to his other forearm, with a lumpy rucksack tied beneath.

The young man smiled at him. His eyes twinkled familiarly.

"Feeling better?" he asked. "That was a heck of a thing you just went through. Trust me, I should know."

"Yeah" Henry replied breathlessly, scratching the back of his head. "Wh-"

"Who the hell are you?" Emma interrupted coldly, wrapping a protective arm around his shoulder and drawing him closer. She'd drawn the dagger at her hip, and Snow had done the same. Charming sat bolt upright, hand at the hilt of his weapon. The man looked between them. Then he chuckled.

"You guys don't recognize me either then. I knew that was coming, but really? Do I really look that different? Kid, can't _you _tell who I am?" he asked Henry. "Don't answer that. I know you can't. As to who I am, the short version is that I'm Henry from the future come to help you guys out." He clapped a hand on Henry's shoulder.

"Long version….well that's kind of too complicated to get into right now. There isn't time anyway. Cora and Hook made it rhough behind you, mom" he addressed Emma. This made her stiffen ever further, tightening the grip on her dagger.

"I don't know who you think you are" Charming began, voice brimming with royal authority. "But-"

"You can tell I'm not lying, can't you Emma" he said to the blonde sheriff. "Which either means I'm telling the truth or I'm just plain crazy. Time travel isn't impossible, just ask Blue. I can prove it to all of you. Even you Emma. For one, I know the truth about Neal. "

Mention of the name turned Emma's blood to ice. Her mouth opened to demand answers, to demand that this stranger explain himself, but he was already moving away from the table towards the exit.

"I'll explain myself fully later okay? Like what exactly just happened to you Henry. You're a sorcerer kid, and a powerful one, with a power more complicated than you can imagine. But I'm getting ahead of myself. By now Cora and Hook should almost be here. Less than two blocks away. I have to prepare or everything's gonna blow up in our faces. You know, like they usually do."

He turned to the diner populace and cupped his hands together.

"Okay everyone, sorry about all the chaos. Granny, Red, sorry about the diner. I'll fix this place up as soon as I'm done outside. Oh and Mr. Sturgess" he said to a seemingly random bystander sitting nearby. "Here's something in advance for what I'm about to do to your car. Sorry, but I need it for something important." He tossed him a small pouch teeming with clinking gold coins.

Without another word the strange knight dashed out into the darkness street, armor catching the glow of the streetlights.

"What the hell just happened?" Emma asked her mother.

"I…I have no idea" she replied honestly.

**LINEBREAK**

Outside in the street the older Henry set quickly about his work. By now the work day had long since ended, so the road was free of oncoming vehicles. Stepping into the center of the street, he reached out a hand and took hold of Mr. Sturgess' car with a telekinetic grip. Crushing it easily with his mind, he lifted the compressed hunk of metal to the street's center. Despite it's mostly destroyed frame the majority of the car's components were still intact. Most vitally, the engine, and the battery.

He needed something metal and motorized to conduct the energy needed for his spell.

He could've powered the spell on his own. There was more than enough raw power raging just beneath his skin to enact the enchantment. But that would drain him so thoroughly that he'd require at least three days of rest afterward. Three days wasn't something he had to spare.

So he was tapping into the nearest source of power available. Storybrooke's electrical grid, courtesy of the nearby streetlamps.

The young man let his rucksack slip to the pavement. Kneeling down, he began digging through the contents, which included a leather bound storybook. After a moment he found what he was looking for. A slender metal rod with a series of dials up and down it covered in magic runes.

Pulling it free of his bag, he gave the rod a flick and extended it to its full length, roughly nine feet from tip to tip.

As he lifted the rod upward he paused for a moment, thinking.

This whole affair was proving to be far more difficult that he thought it would be. He'd known all of this was coming of course. He remembered it that way. From the time he almost eleven years old he knew that he would one day travel back in time to help things along. But that didn't make any of it easier.

It didn't make seeing Regina, his mother again, any easier.

Dear Gods no it didn't.

Plunging the rod downward into the car's crumpled hood he began setting the dials to their proper places. There wasn't much time left. Cora would be there soon. And like she did with everything she touched, Cora would ruin the tiny semblance of peace his family had found at their reunion.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm sorry I took two months on this you guys. I know there's really no excuse, but lately I've been having sort of an existential crisis. Been having trouble at college, went through a bad breakup, and sort of just lost interest in writing period for a while. I'm glad to say however that from now on this story will be updated regularly. With the new episodes that have come out I have a clear vision of what I want to do, and the next update should be here before too long. Tell me if the chapter length is too short though, and please review. **

Despite the street being cloaked in a thickening layer of darkness as night approached, people poured from the diner and the adjacent shops to watch as the strange young man in the armor continued his work. Nimble, gauntlet clad fingers moved up and down the long metal pole protruding upward from the crushed carcass of the car, adjusting the dials with careful precision. The streetlights above cast glittering patterns across the plates of his armor. His face was methodical and calculating.

"Who are you?"

It was Emma who asked this question, naturally. She and her family had made their way out of the diner with the rest of the crowd to watch the strange, magic wielding newcomer. Snow and Charming stood on either side of the daughter, wearing expressions of suspicion laced with curiosity. Charming ran a finger along the hilt of the sword hanging at his belt. He hoped he wouldn't need to use it.

The armored teen looked up from his work.

"I already told you, mom. I'm him, from the future." He jabbed a finger at Henry, who stood close at Emma's side, fiddling with the bulky ring of metal that encased his wrist. "Not really the most believable story, I know. But then again our lives were never all that believable to begin with."

There was no response. The Charming family simply stared at him with varying degrees of disbelief and confusion. He sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. Not that he'd expected it to be of course.

"I can prove it" he told them.

"Then prove it" Emma dared him sardonically, threateningly, brows lowered.

"I'm working off a script right now" the armored Henry said from memory. "I remember exactly what's going to happen now, because I remember it" he jabbed a finger at his younger self. "From his point of view. Every word that's coming out of my mouth, everything I'm doing, is from memory. About thirty seconds from now Cora's gonna come walking down the street in a disguise. I'll call her out on it, we'll exchange a few words, a few spells here and there, a friend of mine'll show up, and then I'll fire up this baby to buy us a little more time to plan" he punctuated the statement by rapping a knuckle against the dialed poll with an audible thunk.

"Still don't believe me?" he asked.

No was the obvious answer to this question, though Emma didn't answer aloud. Being someone effectively raised on the streets, her instinctive feelings towards any story that screamed 'bullshit' were skepticism and apathy. These were still her instinctive feelings, as this moment demonstrated, even with the cavalcade of fantastical convolution that had come to dominate her life in recent times.

_For one, I know the truth about Neal._

She didn't believe him. But that one line still niggled at the back of her mind, burrowing their like a termite gnawing into a plank of wood. Whoever this guy was, he knew about a part of her life that she hadn't even told her closest friend about. And that bothered her more than she cared to admit.

"Look" the supposed time traveler said as he locked the final dial into place and stood up. "Like I said before, I'll explain everything as soon as I can, but right now there's more important things that need doing. Cora's almost here. I can-" His head snapped to the side, peering down the darkened street. There was no sound, she wasn't close enough for her clicking heels to penetrate the murmuring crowd. But he knew she was close now

The armored boy drew his sword.

"Gramps, Grandma," he addressed Snow and Charming. "Try to keep the crowd back. If people get in the way they could get hurt."

Charming nodded, moving to gesture the shifting throng of people back onto the sidewalk, Snowing moving to do the same in the other direction. Neither of them trusted this newcomer yet. Their experinces with Snow's Stepmother had worn away at their abilities to trust strange spellcasters. But for the moment they would go along with it, thousands of questions churning in their respective minds.

Emma stayed right where she was, eyes not moving away from the armored figure. Her heart was thumping with anxiety, hand tightening around her dagger's hilt. She had no idea what was going on. Somehow things had become three times as confusing just when they were starting to cool down. And honestly, it scared her.

The armored Henry reached for his back and strapped his shield into place on his left forearm. It's physical design was a simple kite shape, iron bolts stamped into place to keep the frame together and steel loops stretched across the surface. The design however was far more intricate. It depicted a white swan in flight, wings spread across the shield's length. The paint was bright and vibrant, the green and blue backdrop positively eye-popping

Turning, he made eye contact with his younger self, smiling.

"Make sure to keep that bracelet on, kid. Without it the floating pictures'll come back. And if that happened now, with all these people around and you without any real training, you'd probably go blind."

"What are they?" he asked earnestly, voice quivering. He believed the older boy already. That much was clear from his eyes, the way his gaze didn't falter and the way his fingers pawed at the bracelet. It was actually rather amazing that it had taken him this long to speak.

Had it been any other situation little Henry would have hammered out a thousand questions within the frame of about two seconds. But he was still reeling from the magic spasm that had raged through his young body. Those images, they'd been so clear, and their meanings, at least of a few of them, had been permanently branded into his mind.

"The future, kid" the older boy answered. "Can't explain right now…she's here."

A figure emerged from the murky, half lit pavement of the street. Regina, dressed elegantly as ever in a jet black pantsuit and sensible heels. Her eyebrows quirked at the sight of the armored youth standing before the collapsed car, sword drawn and a battle ready expression on his face.

"Drop the glamour, Cora" he said. "You're not fooling anyone."

'Regina's' head cocked to one side in curiosity.

"Very well."

Purple smoke billowed forth from false Regina's pores, enveloping her figure entirely for a brief moment. As opposed to regular fire smoke, which would have drifted up the street before dispersing into black wisps, this violet variety swooshed to the side, disappearing all but instantaneously.

When the smoke cleared Cora was left standing there in all her glory, black skirts trailing behind her.

"I'm impressed, young man" she said, smiling her ever-manipulative style that could fool anyone who didn't know her. "Not many can see through my disguises."

The older Henry shrugged.

"It wasn't hard. You have mimicking Regina mostly down. The way she carries herself, her sense of dress, even in this world, all the basics. You got the eyes wrong though. Most people wouldn't notice something like that, but I know my mother's eyes."

This caught the Queen of Heart's interest. She'd been expecting this meeting. Looking forward to it even. But it wasn't quite what she'd expected.

"So you're my grandson" she said, voice giving away nothing. "Funny, I pictured you younger." Her eyes drifted to the people gathered on either side of the road. At once she found the Charming family, standing together by the diner entrance. A little boy was with them. Yes, the similarities were clear enough even from this distance. Same skin tone, eye color, hair color, and basic body frame, give or take a few years of puberty and muscle growth.

Cora kept looking, hoping to see her daughter's form creeping just out of sight behind the wall of human bodies.

"I'm a version of him, yes" the Older henry conceded. "Not that either version of me really considers you family."

"How rude" Cora chastised, looking back to him. "Is that really how you speak to your grandmother? I'd of thought Regina would've taught you manners. If you are who you say you are. Chronos Invictus?"

"Good guess. And yes, I am Henry. Call me Hank though. Things could be a bit confusing with two Henry's running around, couldn't they? Now" he took a step forward. As he lifted his sword magic began to fill the plates of his armor. Across the lacquered surfaces thin, almost skeletal images of tree branches began to weave their way around his arms. A thick tree trunk sigil sprouted over his chest, and limbs full of blossoming red fruit came to a head at his fingertips. An apple tree.

"This is where your tour of our lovely town stops. Take another step forward, and I'll kill you."

An eyebrow shot up Cora's already wrinkling forehead.

"Why all this hostility, why these threats, Hank? I've simply come for my daughter. She needs me." The way she said it sounded so earnest, so devastatingly honest that Hank might have believed her if he didn't have the context of both the past and future clear in his memory.

"Why all the hostility? Are you seriously asking that question?" He gestured over his shoulder and Emma and Snow, who both looked like they wanted to join the conversation but were at a loss for what to say. "Didn't you just unleash a horde of zombies after those two, then tried to rip my grandma's heart out so you could give it to my mom as a present? Oh yeah, that's not screwed up at all. We have every reason to just let you pass uninhibited, don't we?

And no, my mom doesn't need you. At all. In fact, it would probably do her good to never see you again. You've done nothing but rip everything she ever loved away from her. You reached inside her and twisted her heart till it was nothing but black with hatred. You're never going to hurt her again. I won't let you."

With a shrieking of metal boot soles on concrete, Hank slid into a comparative stance, shield and sword at the ready.

Cora chuckled.

"Don't presume to know what's best for my little girl, _boy. _Love is but a flowered chain that seeks to hold back those destined for greatness and might. Can love put food on a dying spinsters table? Can it deliver a Miller's daughter from a life of poverty? Of course not. Because it's an illusion, boy. A delusion that you and your family" she cast a glance at Emma and Snow "speak of as gospel truth.

It's a pity really. Power would have suited you well, Snow. You lack the knack for magical, so you were always going to be a rung below the likes of Regina. But your talents at politics would have served you well. Power is power, and power is everything in the end. With you eliminated, whether the future or past form of you, Regina will be free of her shackles at last."

Flame erupted in the palm of her hand, a furious blaze that cast flickering shadows over the shop windows. People screamed and retracted back indoors, or turned and ran down the road. Some of them had been witness to fights between magicians back the old land, and they had never ended pretty.

A pair of fiery bolt shot like bullets from Cora's palm. Hank was ready for them. Starting to move forward, he let the searing projectiles slam against the shield's surface. They dispersed in a series of puffy spark showers, leaving only the faintest of black marks on the Swan sigil.

Hank jumped, spinning his sword in a wide arc. A glint off the steel's edge became a shimmering blade of energy that went spinning at his opponent.

She caught it with ease, twisting the bar of light into a condensed ball, before sending it right back at him. Hank ducked, sliding on his knees under the attack before launching into a series of dance-like blows. Flowing from one sword form to another with the utmost grace, he pelted the dark sorceress with a rain of cold steel and raw strength amplified by magic.

Each blow Cora caught in a gloved hand, pausing for one brief moment to sidestep the enormous icicle Hank shot at her temple.

"You're well trained for one so young" she complimented. At the same time the two combatants launched fire bolts which met in midair, exploding and cloaking them in a veil of smoke and sparks. "Who do you learn from? They should be commended for instilling such vigor in a pupil. Or least vigor enough to challenge one so much above them."

"Regina taught me" Hank grunted. Spinning to the right he spun a gust of air at Cora's feet, trying to trip her up and give him a moment's reprieve. No luck, however. Vigorous as he may be, Hank knew this was a losing battle. She had far more experience than he did. Decades and decades, and she had the darkest of magics at her disposal, magics that he'd vowed never to use. The back of his left hand tingled at the thought.

"Did she?" Cora sounded genuinely interested. "And when was this exactly?"

"Curious about the future, are we?" Hank sneered, stumbling back a step as concussive force shook the shield against his forearm. He glanced up at the space above her head. Symbols glittered there. They were always there for magic users. No exceptions. "You're going to lose."

"Am I?" she twisted her hand and a slab of stony pavement shot upward from the ground, sending Hank rolling sideways. A trickle of blood slid down his cheeks. A burn mark singed one of his eyeleashes. His body was bruised. "And how exactly are you planning to defeat me? This strange contraption here?" she gestured at the mangled car with the pole. Hank smiled through his pain. From this distance she couldn't read the symbols on the dials. She didn't know it was magical.

"I don't have to" he answered, climbing to his feet. "I just have to hold out about twenty more second before my backup gets here."

Right on cure, just as Hank remembered it would, a dark shape plummeted out of the sky. A shooting star of twisting limbs and shouting men. The shape made impact with the ground and slid a good twenty yards before being stopped by the base of a streetlight.

Two men lay twisted around the length of a broom, throwing punches at one another in frenzy of movement. One was Captain Hook. His coat was torn and streaked with flecks of blood. The scabbard of his sword was empty, leaving his angrily raised hook his only weapon.

The second man was a slender in a thick black cloak with a high collar that slatted to the sides of his face.

Hook was a demon in combat. But he didn't magic, and his opponent did.

Yellow light crackled around the fist that finally knocked the pirate captain from consciousness. Slouching slightly from fatigue, the young man stood up and turned to the dueling magicians. His eyes were a piercing green, his chin a hatchet carved from flesh and bone.

Emma pushed Henry even further behind her at the sight of him. The should be running right now, she knew that. That was common sense. But if they did, Cora would no doubt turn away from her duel and let loose upon them. And even armed as they were with swords and knives, they couldn't fight magic.

"Witch-boy!" Hank shouted at the newcomer, grinning like a madman. "It's about time you got here! Where'd your portal come out?"

"The forest at the edge of town" the slightly older youth answered, brushing leaves and twigs from the folds of his cloak. "Remind me to never go along with your plans ever again. It took me ten minutes just to take off through the trees."

He opened his hand, and like it had a mind of its own, the broom wriggled its way out from beneath Hook and floated to its master's grip. Hook slumped further to the ground, groaning softly as his bruised torso came into contact with solid matter. Purplish bruising was beginning to show around his eyes. Further examination would show that his ribs were cracked, as was his wrist. That was what happened when you were attacked by a bloke on a flying broom. You got carried into the air before being flung back down again in a furious fist fight.

"The last time you went against my plans we were nearly savaged by goblins" Hank retorted.

"You _were _savaged by goblins. I got away scot-free. Why do you think I went against your pla-"

The broom boy was knocked from his feet by some invisible hand. Cora's hand was raised, her lips clicking like a chastising mother.

"Why don't you introduce your friend Hank?" she said. "It was quite rude of him to arrive unannounced."

"That's my style" the boy answered for himself, groaning from the attack. "Just thought I'd stop by and lend a hand. Didn't take long to track down Hook. He'd gone off hunting Rumpelstiltskin, even though with magic in this place, the Dark one would eviscerate him in seconds." He prodded at Hook with his broom. The captain groaned. "I'm Liir. Son of Elphaba. And for some reason, this idiot's friend" he indicated Hank.

"Thanks" Hank muttered. "Can we get on with this?"

"Right" Liir agreed. "Want shield or generator?"

"Generator, you're better at shields anyway."

As one the young sorcerers shot a blast of force in Cora's direction. She managed to block it, just barely, but the single second she faltered gave them time. Limping slightly Hank leapt up on top of the crumpled car and took the pole in his hands.

Power, raw and primal, flowed like lifeblood from his body. One by one the dial runes began lighting up, glittering like diamonds.

Shrieks of terror filled the streets as the streetlights went out in an explosion of glass and electrical sparks. Shop windows exploded inward on themselves, and the ground beneath the car began to shake.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Emma bellowed. She didn't like being left out of the loop, and for the majority of this conversation, she'd been stuck on the sidelines wondering what the fuck was going on. Her parents had drawn their weapons, and Henry was trembling at her side.

"Saving you!" Liir barked.

He still stood on the ground, cloak billowing behind him as if caught in some great wind.

Thrusting his hands forward, a bubble of light forward around him. A shield charm. Turning to face Hank, he extended a finger, and a tendril of lightning shot out between them, conjoining them.

Hank screamed as every last ounce of power was pulled from him. The tendril of lightning pulsed as the power drained into the shield, and then there was explosion of white that sent a bewildered Cora flying into to sky.


	4. Chapter 4

Arms crossed in a failed attempt to hide her savaged nerves, Emma paced across the floor of the Sheriff's station to the window. Night had truly fallen now, and the sky was salted with glittering stars. The constellations could be made out against the black despite the unnatural light inherent with any human civilization. However, the artwork of the gods was obscured somewhat by a shimmering dome of light that encased Storybrooke almost entirely. It's surface shook in waves, like the surface of water being disturbed by a cool morning breeze.

"It's a repellant shield" Hank, as he called himself, had explained as he limped away from the blacked wreckage of his magic-car-generator-thing with the help of a Liir's shoulder. "Should keep Cora out for about three days. Give us time to regroup and plan."

Presently, Hank sat nursing his bruises under the suspicious eyes of Snow and Charming, as well as the quivering yet precise nose of Ruby. They didn't trust him yet. Nor did they quite believe the claims he'd made about his identity. And considering the magic he'd displayed in the street they had more than enough reason to be wary of him. For all they knew he could be disguised just as Cora had been, trying to lead them all on with a fabricated story. Thus why Ruby was trying to verify his identity via scent.

Occasionally she moved to smell the various contents of Hank's rucksack, which had been emptied and ransacked for information. The contents included a heavy leather bound book, a storybook not unlike Henry's apart from the title, which read 'Once Upon a Time: Volume Two'. A small brown box containing a variety of potions and liquids. A scroll of heavy papyrus, and a thick white cloak, folded into a neat, thick square.

This Ruby reached for, unfolding it to let fumes and scents roll free of its folds.

Though the majority of the cloak was white, it had a large amount of inlaid designs covering it's surface. The inner side was patterned with runes similar to those that had decorated the pole outside. The outer side of the cloak however was mostly white, apart from the center, which was dominated by the likeness of an enormous Cobra with gold and green scales. It's head was poised, and, secure in the coils of its tail was an apple held aloft, bright red and shiny.

"My sigil" Hank explained in response to the odd looks it earned him, and the excitedly amazed look he got from Henry.

Hook, mangled as he was from the broom crash, was handcuffed to a hospital bed in the room's corner cell. His various wounds and bruises were still steaming from the after effect of the healing salves Liir had applied. They worked far better than anything the hospital could offer him, and his cracked ribs had been set to the point where he could be moved into the cell without risk of later infection. They'd have to interrogate him later, of course.

Liir himself stood at Hank's side, glaring at the Blue Fairy who was examining his confiscated broom.

A heavy silence dominated the place. No one was quite sure what to say, Emma least of all. Nothing had been said yet. No new information had come to light. Nothing about time travel, and nothing about what the hell was going on.

Henry, bless him, hadn't shot off the thousand odd questions that were no doubt scurrying around his eleven-year-old mind. He just sat quietly at his mother's desk, looking at the bracelet that somehow kept his newly manifested magical powers at bay. That was another thing setting Emma's nerves aflame with worry and consternation. Not only did she somehow have magic, so did her son.

"Okay" Hank said, straightening up in his chair. "Why don't I-"

"Ruby?" Emma cut him off, addressing the werewolf.

"They have the same base scent" said Ruby, taking one last intake of air to double check. "There are differences of course, but that's probably due to age. Puberty, and all that. Can't say the same for this guy, though." She jabbed a finger at Liir. "Though he smells sort of familiar even if I can't place it."

"I've been in your diner before" Liir said. "The younger me, I mean. That's where you've smelled me before."

"You'll have to point yourself out for us" interjected Snow. Gone was the calm motherly demeanor that was usually her default expression. This wasn't Snow the school teacher, this was the Princess, with calculating eyes and a careful tongue. "If you want us to believe your story, that is."

"You will believe my story Grandma" Hank told her with a smile. She took a step back, jarred. Yes, his smile was hauntingly similar to Henry's, and by extension, Emma's. "And I'll explain myself as soon as you'll let me, and as soon as our last guest gets here."

"Last guest?" inquired Charming, eyebrow raised. "You have more supposed time travelers with you?"

"Nope" Hank gazed up at the clock. He began counting off the seconds with his armored fingers. "Just someone who ought to be here for this."

Another silence fell. It lasted only a few seconds however, and when Hank ticked off a tenth finger, the station doors burst open.

In strode a very flustered looking Regina, ignoring the protests of the dwarves standing guard outside. Her face was coated in a sheen layer of sweat. Her shoulders heaved with exhaustion, and her clothing was disheveled in a way unbecoming of her usually pristine and haughty air. She glanced around the room until her gaze settled on the armored teen.

"That was quite the stasis field you put up around me" she said as calmly as she could muster. "You're quite powerful for someone your age."

Slipping from his seat, Henry approached his mother. She looked down at his coming, and her face visibly softened for all to see. Their eyes locked. Henry smiled.

"She's the real one" he announced before wrapping his arms around her middle in an embrace. Regina returned it willingly, chin coming to rest briefly atop his head.

"Yes," she said, pulling away. "I hear my mother's been impersonating me in the center of town. The disguise didn't work, if all the shattered windows dented cars and burns marks on the road are anything to go by. You fought her then?"

Hank nodded.

"And somehow you survived" the former queen sounded skeptical. "I assume that's where the shield came in?"

"Yes" Liir answered for him. "We prepared it in our time. Specifically designed to keep Cora out."

Regina turned, noticing him for the first time.

"Who are you?" her tone was concise and demanding.

"Liir, son of Elphaba, if his story is to be believed" said the Blue Fairy. She lifted the broom in her demure, fairy hands, turning it over to examine the aged wooden handle. "For what it's worth, this is Elphaba's broom. Something like this can't be fabricated easily." Her face was calm, though one could tell she was unsettled by the whole affair.

"Who's Elphaba?" Emma asked, sincerely hoping she didn't sound like an idiot. Well, even if she did appear stupid, it would still delay the inevitable storm of crap that was coming. Time travel. Of all the things for them to deal with.

"The Wicked Witch of the West" Liir supplied, cringing visibly at the title. "You know, green skin, pointy hat, broomstick, ruby slippers, flying monkeys, that stuff."

"Ah" was all Emma could reply with. Wasn't it obvious? The Wicked Witch of the West! Of course she was real too! Why wouldn't she be? What was next then? The lollipop guild rolling through town on a cross country tour? The scarecrow and the tinman doing a merry jig at city hall?

"I wasn't aware Elphaba had a son" Regina said. "She never seemed to be the breeding type." Dark eyes drifting back and forth between Henry and Hank. To Emma, it was clear the sorceress was feeling the same sort of inner turmoil she was. She almost felt sympathy for her, though that sympathy was immediately squashed by the fact of Regina's past actions. She'd be getting no comfort from Emma. Not anytime soon.

"She wasn't, really" Liir drawled. "Wasn't really the mothering type, either."

"Not to interrupt," Hank said, climbing to his feet. "But I think we should get to the point of things about now. Liir, you can exposit later. You know how much your brooding amuses me." He surveyed the room, ignoring his companions roll of the eyes and light punch to his shoulder. "Simply put, and this is really simplifying things, we're from the future. Six years and three months in the future to be exact."

He wasn't lying, far as Emma could tell. Though this was a situation where her superpower would be less than reliable. Emotions always fiddled with it, making her see truth where there were only lies.

"But is time travel even possible?" It was Charming who asked this question, aimed not at Hank, but at the Blue Fairy. Oldest among them, she'd be the one to know.

Adjusting her nun's shawl, she gave her answer, however uneasily.

"It's possible I suppose, though not common by any means. Chronus Invictus, you said?" Hank nodded. "That is a viable spell. An ancient one, thousands and thousands of years old, older than I even. I've seen it referenced in texts before, but I've never come across the spell itself."

"You will come across it, Blue" Hank said, addressing like an old friend instead of a near-holy being of magical reverence. "It was with your help that we even cast the spell in the first place, and prepared that shield spell. No one else could've gotten the runes right."

"Why'd you come back though? And what is this for exactly?" Henry asked brightly, tapping his bracelet. The same childish curiosity still shone in his words, and Emma again thanked god for a son who would ask such questions straight out. Without his forwardness, they'd probably end up avoiding the difficult questions for a good three weeks.

Hank grinned at his counterpart.

"I'm getting to that kid. Well, it's a little complicated. No surprise there. Our lives have never been anything but complicated. Kinda used to it by now though. Basically we travelled back in time because we remember older versions of ourselves coming back from the future when we were kids. This isn't like the movies, we aren't here to change the future, we're here to ensure the future, to complete the timeline. There's somethings we can tell you and others we can't." He pointed to the second Once Upon a Time book. "You're free to look through that. It's already enchanted so you can't see stuff you haven't already witnessed. Otherwise we're here because, put bluntly, you'll need all the help you can get here.

Cora's out there biding her time, getting ready for an attack. She's coming for you, mom" This he said to Regina, who, just from the tone of his voice, wholeheartedly believed his identity. "She wants to break you, to use you in her ploy at power. I'm not going to let that happen. I'll die first" There was a solemn finality to his last statement. He meant every word a hundred times over. A noteworthy commitment for a teenager.

"But Cora isn't all that's out there. There's a bigger threat coming. Something bigger than all of us…" He paused, either to keep their attention or for dramatic emphasis. Either was plausible for a version of Henry.

"W-what?" Emma croaked, failing to suppress the crackling of her voice.

"Destiny" he replied simply. He turned to Henry. "That's what those images you saw were, kid. People's destinies floating above their heads. Basically, at least. It's a little more complicated than that."

Liir snorted.

"A little complicated?" he said almost laughing. "A little complicated is my family tree. This is complicated like _your _family tree."

Hank ignored him. The time would come to deal with his clusterfuck of a family tree.

"We call them viewings. Reading the pattern, Blue, as some older books may call the ability. I, you, we," he stumbled over the pronoun. "see the weaving of people's fates manifested in the form of floating symbols. Sometimes I instinctively know what they mean, others I don't. But when I know, I'm never wrong. It's set in stone, and can't be changed. Even if you tell the person, it'll still happen.

Henry paled.

He'd seen Granny's death hovering above her white-gray hair.

"It's alright kid" Hank said, knowing exactly what the boy was thinking. "They'll be time to dwell on what you saw later, alright?" Henry nodded, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat. He would be strong. For now at least.

"There's a couple of rules to how this power works." Liir coughed. "Okay, more than a few, but here's the basics. First, magic users always have something floating above their heads. Always. Second, new stuff can always appear. Just because you didn't see something above someone before doesn't mean you won't ever. We learn that the hard way, kid. Third, don't try looking in a mirror to see your own future. Won't work, all you'll see is static. You can't read your own future. Not directly."

"What's the threat?" Charming asked. His question had a dual intention. To draw any words potentially harmful away from his grandson, and to sate his own nervous curiosity.

"Darkness, as vague as that sounds. Death, destruction and chaos overwhelming everything and everyone. There's a war coming. It starts with Cora's play at power, and it ends in the Final Battle." He looked to Emma. "And it all ties into your destiny, mom."

Emma stiffened. Both at being called mom by someone other than a rambunctious little brown haired boy, and the use of the word 'destiny'. She really didn't like that word. It did nothing but make her feel like a pawn on a chessboard. First it had been with Gold, who had seemingly controlled almost every facet of her life to assure she'd one day break his curse.

"What do you see floating over my head, then?" she asked more darkly than she'd intended. Hank didn't flinch as his gaze moved above the golden blonde hair.

"Lot's of things" he answered. " More than with anyone else. It's almost blinding, really. That's part of why I told little me to keep that bracelet on. It keeps both his magic, and the symbols at bay. Were he to look at you without it, without training, he'd go blind."

"Get to the point" Emma barked, voice raising a single octave. "What do you see?"

"A swan in flight" Hank began listing. "A sword with a red handprint staining the blade. A crown of stars. A field of flowers blooming on a barren landscape. An ogres head, pierced with an arrow. Two thrones, one of white marble the other of black onyx, standing back to back. A broken dagger, and light. Lots and lots of light."

Emma felt her lips pursing without intent. Nothing but vague, cryptic images.

"And what does all that mean?" She didn't expect him to tell her anything.

"The swan in flight means this" he tapped a finger on the shield that lay on the table beside his upended bag. "It's your sigil. The shield is yours too, actually. You let me borrow it for this. As for the other stuff…." He hesitated, glancing at Regina. "Here's what I can tell you. The thrones, their floating over your head too, mom."

Regina blinked.

"And what do they mean?" Her voice was just as level as Emma's had been, and it betrayed the same strain of nervousness.

"They mean that when the final conflict comes, the two of you have to be standing together, on the same side. Or else everyone here is going to die." He let that last statement hang in the air for a moment. "As for that conflict, Blue" he addressed the Blue Fairy. "The Dark One is going to be named. Aloud. Once and for all."

Despite having been her acquaintance for a number of years, no one in the room had ever seen the Blue Fairy do a double take. She stumbled where she stood, dropping the broom back to the table and whirring around with an expression horrific, that had she the fairy dust to power her magic, it could have melted flesh from bones.

"No!" she almost shrieked. She rung a hand through her hair, disturbing the serenity of her perfectly cultivated bun. "You-you can't be serious!"

"I am" Hank replied. "That's what the viewing of the dagger means, Blue. It means that she's destined to break the power of darkness once and for all. To put an end to it."

"It can't be done" she stuttered out at a frantic rate. "I've tried. It can't be done!" her screeching shook the glass in the window.

"She can" Hank insisted. Everyone was staring at the two of them now. No one had any idea what they were talking about. "You can feel it, can't you Blue? The power coursing through her, raging like the sun? She's more powerful than the rest of us here put together. That's why she's the savior. Not because of Rumpelstiltskin's machinations, because she has the truest, greatest power inside of her."

"I won't speak of this" Blue said curtly, trying her best to regain any semblance of composure. "I won't" She made towards the door, smoothing her skirts as she went.

"It's going to happen no matter what, Blue" Hank called after her. "We need your help. You're the only one old enough to know the name. No one can speak it unless you give it to them."

The eldest fairy said nothing as she slipped out the door, passing the flustered dwarves as she went.

"That went a lot better than I remembered" Hank said aloud. He clapped his hands together. "Oh well, she'll come around eventually. Now, on to business."

"What the hell was that about?" Emma demanded.

"I have to agree with Miss Swan on that" said Regina. "I've studied magic for well over a decade, and I haven't the slightest idea what just happened. Name the Dark One? He already has a name. Vile as the man with said name is."

"That's what the new threat is" Hank explained, vaguely. " The power of the Dark One. Darkness itself, and whatever mischief Cora's going to stir up in the meantime. I want to tell you more, I really do." Emma could tell he meant that. "But that's all in the details right now. Too much to explain in one night, and even if I were to try, it would only terrify everyone here. The details aren't what's important right now. What's important right now is that we prepare for what's to come. We have three days until the shield comes down, and three days until Cora can get into town.

In the meantime we need to train. Emma, practice you're swordplay, it's gonna come in handy. Trust me, I know. Gramps can help you with that. Grandma, you need to set up a town meeting for tomorrow. The people trust you to lead them. They need to know what's going on and how to get ready for it. All war, in the long run. Little me," he grinned at the his own way of addressing his younger self. "You need some magic training."

Henry didn't bother trying to hide the excitement from his face. It was the only thing smothering the fear of the future.

"Are you going to train me?"

"Nope, mom is." He patted Regina on the shoulder on his way towards the door. "I have some stuff to take care of first. Liir." His broom-riding companion made to join him, calling the broom to his hand. 'We're going to need a place to meet and plan from now on." He addressed the room at large. "Sorry to do this mom, but I suggest your place. It's biggest, and has enough space for the whole family. Play nice, everyone. We may not all get along but we need to put that behind us for the time being," this sentence was punctuated with a lingering glance between Regina, Snow, and Charming. "I'll meet you guys there in the morning.

Together he and Liir stepped towards the exit. The white cape flew across the room like a curtain caught in the wind and fastened itself to hank's shoulders. The rucksack and it's contents he left. They could make use of t potions, and the book. Door half open, Hank turned over his shoulder.

"And mom" he addressed Emma. "If you're wondering how it is I know Neal, It's because I'm going to meet him. This may be hard to swallow, but he's not a bad guy. Not really."

With that, and a slight nod, he stepped out of the door, and the pair disappeared into the night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry this took so long guys. I swear I'll be updating regularly now. I've just been having trouble getting myself to actually sit down and write, even when I have free time. Please stick with this, I've got big plans. Happy reading.**

Hank strode down the dark subterranean corridor that ran the length of Regina's vault, a fistful of flames raised before him to illuminate the way. Despite the dank, unkempt nature that usually defined such underground structures, no cobwebs line the high reclusive corners, and not a speck of dust marred the stone floors. Regina was promiscuously tidy if nothing else. Though a few skittering cockroaches would help keep the terrifying persona of an evil queen alive and well in her lair.

Ten paces behind him Liir trailed uneasily, broom thrown over one shoulder, long cloak trailer across the floor. His hatchet-like chin cut swatches in the air as he looked about in observation, gaze pausing on the few doorways they came upon. He wasn't entirely sure what it was Hank was looking for, but he didn't question it aloud. Experience had shown that nine times out of ten, even Hank's craziest, most ridiculously complicated plans had some sort of hidden genius to them.

"I'm going to assume that was meant to be the torture room" he remarked calmly, jabbing at a door with iron spikes driven vertically from floor to doorframe. His time in the Ozian military had taught him about such things. Torture rooms were meant to be intimidating, even from the outside. "So the next door must be filled with your mother's means of torture. What does she favor, Newt Eye acids or large pointy sticks?"

"Actually the second door is a spare sitting room that's never been used. She hasn't had the need for it, what with the curse and all. I mean, everyone always thought she was an evil mayor, but not Disney villain evil." He peered over his shoulder to take in his friend's perplexedly taken aback expression. "What, didn't your mother have a few frivolities beneath her castle? Or was the space taken up by all the flying monkeys?"

"No. Kiama Ko was on top of a mountain, and the waterworks ran underneath it. Elphaba never went down there, for obvious reasons. Her lair was in the east tower, next to monkey tower. It was a fun place to play as a kid. Once you got past all the falling feces."

A creaking from behind them brought their attention to the third member of their party. Thirty paces back August Booth limped on, wooden limbs creaking with each methodical step. His face was contorted with pain and frustration. Above his head Hank could see a viewing shimmering in the pale light. An enchanted tree, ablaze. Before this was all over Pinocchio would be put the trial. In the way that all things wooden fear above all else.

"Remind me again why we recruited the puppet" Liir whispered.

"We need all the help we can get" Hank answered without looking back. "You know what's coming Liir."

"Isn't he the reason your parents didn't get to raise you themselves?" the witch-boy insisted, whisper rising to a sharp hiss. Hank sighed. If there was one thing Liir was best at, apart from broom riding and monkey commanding, it was holding a grudge. So much so that he couldn't quite understand when other people moved on from what he considered a sizable offense. Basically he was asking 'why don't you hate him?'.

"Partially." He flicked a finger to conjure a bubble of air around them as they moved, effectively cutting their muted conversation off from wooden ears. "I won't lie and say what he did wasn't upsetting, but he was doing what he thought to be right. I can't begrudge his for that. He's my friend. And, in the end, things were meant to happen this way." This answer wasn't what Liir wanted.

"Is 'fate' your answer to everything?"

"In a way fates the answer to everything. While else would we have travelled back in time to insure the right events? Do you think that's all a coincidence?"

"Coincidence, the sad sack of shit that is life, pick whatever term you want. Whichever it is, I doubt it's some omnipotent cretin in the sky dictating the course of history."

Hank let the conversation die there. With another finger movement he dispersed the air bubble.

He and Liir had never quite seen eye to eye on certain topics. Well, a lot of topics. Personality wise the two of them were near polar opposites. Hank was king, or tried to be at least. His plans often involved showing mercy, or going about things in a non linear fashion. To Liir, this was stupidity. His plans were straight lines, blunt, simple, and cynical. They were great friends, though considering how often they disagreed it was reasonable to be skeptical about how they could possibly operate well in the same magical commando unit.

Hank pushed these thoughts aside. He'd spent years to try and turn Liir into a believer. All in vain. Trying more now would just be wasting time. There were far more important matters at hand.

Ten yards further along the hall he came to a stop at an inconspicuous human door. The wood was shabby and splintered, nothing special to indicate what lay in the room beyond. Except, that is, for a jumble of low thumping noises pulsing from within. Target reached.

"You don't have to wait for me, you know" August called sardonically, slowly getting closer now that they'd stopped. "By all means, go on without me."

"We're here August" Hank told him. "This is what we came for."

The wooden man turned, and the armored youth couldn't help but cringe inwardly at his face. Wooden as they were, August's eyes appeared as wood ovals with cobalt blue painted over their lines and graining. He was thankful that he wouldn't be in this state forever. Otherwise their sessions of editing the second Once Upon a Time book together would be awkward as hell.

Turning back to the door, Hank opened the latch and pushed the door inward. What lay inside made both of his companions gasp aloud.

"Dear Lurlina…" Liir muttered, swearing by the name of Oz's fairy goddess.

"Holy shit" said August, quite an inelegant curse for a writer.

The room itself was nothing to take note of. A stone box with for walls and a ceiling, with little attention paid to decorations apart from the intricate archway that ran above the far wall.

Against said wall sat a large cabinet of sorts, with three dozen or so drawers with fronts carved with heart insignias, and a reddish glow shining from within them. With the door open the beating of the hearts was loud and melodious, echoing eerily off the walls and filling the place with an inescapable sense of dread.

"So this is when you get the heart" said Liir quietly. "I should have seen it."

"Whose heart are you hear for?" August asked a bit louder than he'd intended. The thumping sent shivers down his wooden skin, and ice through his wooden veins. "You didn't say anything about _this_ before."

They hadn't actually said much of anything in terms of plans when they've recruited him from the abandoned trailer he'd been living in for the last several weeks. They'd arrived, Hank had introduced himself as Henry from the future, requested that August accompany them, and, despite the absurdity of the situation, August had accepted.

He wasn't quite sure himself if he believed the boys story, but he could tell Hank hadn't been lying. Lying was something he was good at spotting. That, and it wasn't as if he had pressing matters to see to in the woods, waiting complacently while the termites ate away at his spinal column.

Now however he questioned his judgment. Using hearts like this was some of the darkest magic there was. Twisting someone against their will, crushing their essence into ruby dust…

"Relax August" said Hank. "I'd never use a heart like that. We just need one in particular for the coming fight."

Liir grumbled as they entered. He could feel a disagreement coming. Both from memory and from instinct. And that instinct was telling him his friend was about to do something stupid and 'noble'.

The three of them didn't approach the hearts outright. Squeamishness prevented it. Instead, Hank took a few steps further than the others, and raised his hand.

As one the drawers snapped open, the thumping of the hearts tripling in volume.

A sharp pain shot up Hank's temples. It splintered through the rest of his head, searing his eyes and brow, as above each of the hearts viewings began to blossom into existence.

That was something he hated about hearts. Usually, unless they were a magic user, they didn't give off a viewing at all. He could look at them without being tormented by what he knew laid somewhere along their path. But the hearts were a metaphysical construct of someone's essence. Of what made them who they were. Seeing them in the flesh, seeing someone's truest self was enough to manifest a symbol even for the blandest of fates.

Painful as it was, this was the surest way to identify the heart he was looking for.

Clumped together in so large a number, the viewings were a mess of convoluted lives and beings. One heart's owner was going to die being crushed by a very large boulder. Another would die of old age in his bed, and a third, indicated by a shovel spattered with dirt, would dig their own grave. Others would live happier lives. Intertwined rings indicated loving marriage, and a basinet wrapped in holly indicated that a child would be born to one of the victims on Christmas day.

An entire minutes passed while Hank sorted through the images, before at last he spotted it near the bottom of the cabinet.

A triad of symbols clustered over this particular heart. A complicated destiny and an important one.

A golden scale with a pulsing heart one side, a dagger on the other. A portal being torn into existence. A thrusting sword.

Hank knew what all three of these meant. And he didn't much like any of them. Such was the future. Rarely was it what you had hoped for.

Kneeling down he pulled the drawer out of the cabinet and sealed the lid like flaps dangling at its sides to seal the wicked heart away. Another finger twitch, and the rest of the drawers shut themselves, deafening the hearts and removing the bloody red glow that had draped the walls. With a weary sigh Hank slumped to the ground and leaned against the cabinet. His eyes closed. He needed time to think now. To plan.

All the players were slowly making their way onto the board. Cora and Hook were in town, and soon his father would be too. There would never be a shortage for drama in his family, Neal's reappearance in Emma's life would undeniably prove. There was also the matter of his semi-demonic grandfather. He'd have to be talked to their side. Somehow.

"That's Cora's heart, isn't it?" August asked in awe. Hank gave a silent nod.

"Crush it" Liir said. "Crush it now. You can end all of this right now if you just take it out, and squeeze. Hell, I'll do it for you."

"You know it's not meant to happen that way, Liir" Hank said without opening his eyes.

"Why? Because you have to make a point? Because you always have to be the goddamned hero? You're not doing anything special in sparing the bitch's life. We've both killed before in battle, so has the rest of your family and they still cling to the 'killing is bad' shtick. What makes this different?" His voice didn't raise so much as an octave. But it didn't have to. His tone alone indicated his angry displeasure.

"I'm not doing it to spare her life. You know how all this ends. I'm doing it for my mom. She has to see the truth. She has to, otherwise she'll never be able to move on….or redeem herself in any meaningful way. Please, stand with me on this one Liir. I need your help for what's to come. Don't bail on me now just because you'd rather just kill her and be done with it."

Liir turned way, his cape swishing with the movement.

"You're an idiot Henry Mills. A stupid noble idiot whose fixation on morality and family is gonna get him killed someday." He paused. "That being said, I'm with you. Shits about to hit the fan, and someone has to stop you from drowning in it."

Hank smiled.

"Thank you Liir. Give me a few minutes. I'll figure out what we have to do next."

**I know this is short, but I wanted to get something out. I promise the next one'll come faster. Please Review! **


	6. Chapter 6

The deck of the Jolly Roger was hardly what Cora would have picked for an ideal base of operations. Bits of splintery wood stuck of here and there off the floor planks, and the smell of rank sailors and their rum still carried in the chambers below, immortalized by centuries of existence in the unchanging realm of Neverland. But still, Cora could make do. Her youth living with a drunkard of a father who never lifted a finger other than to gorge himself on the little bread they managed to buy or to caress her thighs in a half lucid stupor had taught her to play the cards she was dealt.

And look what that had gotten her in the long run. Magical power equaled only by a select few, a daughter as a queen, and dominance over Wonderland. Though the last bit was only coincidental, seeing as she hadn't ever intended to be flung into the hallucinatory realm of mushrooms and madness.

As she carefully levitated the iron wrought cage onto the deck, she gazed upwards at the shimmering dome of light that encased the town. It's barrier fell just short of the harbor, keeping her confined to the our third of the waterfront part of town. Not much, consisting only of the docks, a few boats, and the salty lapping of the sea. No matter though. She still had her magic. And that was all she'd ever really needed. That, and a force field strong enough to keep her out could only hold so long. A few days at most.

The appearance of the armored sorcerer had her intrigued. Not frightened. Nothing truly frightened her anymore. But nonetheless, it was interesting. Her years of magical study had garnered little information on time magic. Of all the Arcane arts it was perhaps the most obscure, which was saying a lot when it came to magic. Most magic was obscure, revealing itself only to those with the ambition to seek it out. People like her who had tricked the great trickster himself into passing on the secrets of the Dark Arts.

Time was a sacred force, most contemporary magicians said as they twiddled their beards nervously, unwilling to take the risks inherent with gaining any kind of real power. Time wasn't meant to be meddled with. And yet it had been it seemed. Chronos Invictus, the boy had confirmed, referring to a ritual so ancient in origin it outdated a being as old as Reul Gorm.

It made sense in context. The boy certainly appeared to be who he professed to be. His features matched perfectly with the younger version of her grandson. Brown hair, insipidly kind and forgiving eyes that still burned with passion, and a rather large amount of raw magical talent.

That had to come from his birth mother, Cora decided. Emma Swan had managed to deflect her attempts at her heart without even trying, and had sent her flying with just the barest amount of intent. Power ran deep in that boys bloodline, it seemed. Also, the boy was prepared, and seemed able to either predict or recall from memory certain events. Such as the arrival of hit broomstick riding ally.

Yet concluding that the boy was a time traveler only raised further questions. First and foremost was his intent in using such a ritual. Time travel couldn't possibly be a simple spell. It had to be something he viewed of grave importance. To help his mother, perhaps, as he'd told her during their confrontation. But that didn't quite make sense to Cora.

She loved her daughter, of course. That was why she'd come to this strange land in the first place. But other people had never seemed to understand love in quite the same way she had. To them, love was this strange force that bound all things together, inspiring selfless, irrational actions of self-sacrifice for apparently no other reason that the good of the loves recipient.

That was ridiculous, Cora knew. Her love for her daughter was of course for Regina's good, after all what greater love was their than insuring that her offspring have access to the power and greatness that she'd been deprived of as the Miller's daughter? But Regina was also meant to be of use to her in her own strive for power.

The dagger's power in particular.

No, she decided for the thousandth time over the last three or four decades, love as a base attachment was a weakness. One that would drag you down and rip from you your potential. She'd seen that as a young woman, and thus had removed her heart and with it her weakness.

Regina would have to have the same done to her.

Remove the boy, both of them, time travel be damned, and with them her weakness would be gone.

The metal of the cage screeched as it came to rest on the wooden deck. Chest rising with each breath, the sleeping giant snored obnoxiously loud, windbag like cheeks filling and deflating rhythmically.

Cora smiled.

Strong as it was, a force field of this type was designed to keep a specific person at bay. Not whatever minions she may send through it.

No, time travel or not, she would get to her daughter one way or the other.

And should her giant fail, the magic beans potted in the soil below deck would assure she had quite the number of surprises to throw at Storybrooke's befuddled populace.

**LINEBREAK**

Mr. Adam Gold, or Rumpelstiltskin as the people of the Enchanted forest knew him, was in a peevishly bad mood that morning.

Obviously he had heard the commotion of the previous night, even isolated as he was in his basement with his experiments. At first he'd thought nothing much of the sound of a few explosions shaking main street. This was a town full of people from a magical realm after all. It was only a matter of time before a few rogue magic users had at it in some public space.

So all he'd done as precaution was to call Belle's apartment, make sure she was alright, and then to move on with his own personal projects. He was nearly at a breakthrough, he knew it. Just another week, and he'd be able to cross the town line and be off on the search he'd been waiting three centuries to properly begin.

But then more details of the previous night had fluttered their way into his ears.

Talk of time travelling sorcerers doing battle with a shape changing sorceress, and of a town sized dome in the sky.

Apparently Cora had found a way through after all, and for perhaps the first time in several hundred years the feel of genuine fright crawled it's way up his less than perfect spinal column.

Of all the foes he'd made over the years, lords and ladies trying to use his powers in their political games, Regina with her own selfish motives, and the thousand others he'd crossed swords with, Cora was by far the most devious. The most dangerous. He'd been attracted to her by her ambition all those years ago. And that attraction had turned her into an incredibly ruthless of being capable of even less remorse than he.

His annoyance this morning came at being left out of the loop.

As the Dark One he'd grown accustomed to being in control. Many years worth of historical events had been shifted by his invisible strings, carefully creating the perfect environment for the curse to be enacted. He was the puppet master of an entire world.

Yet now, all that he knew of the situation had come from cursory details picked up from passersby in the street.

Amd that there was a town meeting this morning which he only knew about through Belle, who'd learned of it off a phone tree just before breakfast.

So now here the great Dark One was, limping down the street with the rest of town, on the way to a public event just to learn whatever tidbits of information he could about the situation.

Walking briskly at his side, Belle took note of his expression at once.

"Calm down, Rumple" she soothed him, rubbing his arm gently. "It's alright."

"Hardly" he said curtly. "Cora's here already. And probably inside this bubble, by now." He gestured to the dome with his cane, missing a step as a result and slowing considerably. "She's here for me. For my power, no matter what goals it is she proclaims to the heavens. I know her."

His gaze was drawn involuntarily to the clocktower, whose hands had been in movement for nearly a year now. Where his dagger was hidden in plain sight. Cora's ultimate goal, no doubt.

"What happened between the two of you?" Belle asked quietly. It wasn't the first time she'd asked.

It had come up in conversation before, and he'd always managed to skirt coyly around answering her. His past wasn't something he liked to talk about with her. Not the past that didn't involve her, anyway. He was trying his damnedest to be good for her, to change, but that was difficult when nine out of every ten pages of your story were inked in blood.

"A long time ago, I taught her magic" he began carefully. He'd tell her something, if not everything. "Tell me, have you read the story of the Miller's daughter?"

The brows shot up Belle's pale forehead.

"Yes" she answered.

Being the local librarian had given her access to an abundance of children's stories. Fairy tales, or as they truly were, the stories of their realm. She'd torn her way through most of them by now. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Sleeping Beauty, Hua Mulan. The last one had made her smile, and wonder what her one time friend would think of the way this world perceived her.

"You spun straw into gold for her…in exchange for her baby…." She trailed off uneasily. Reading that story had been rather hard. Mostly because she didn't know how much of it had been story, and how much had been truth.

"Yes" he confirmed with his gaze ahead. "That was the original deal we struck. She was a poor miller's daughter who'd gotten herself into quite the predicament with the local king, Xavier. You won't have heard of him. His kingdom didn't take long to dissolve, and his children were reduced to minor dukes and duchesses across the lands in just a decade or two. He taunted her about her heritage, and she boasted of spinning straw into gold. He called her bluff, and told her to either prove it or die. That was when I stepped in."

"Why her baby though?" Belle asked. It was an earnest question free of any judgment. That was part of why Rumpelstiltskin loved her. For some reason beyond his understanding, she didn't despise him for what he'd done in the past.

"What I wanted was an apprentice. Someone to shape and to mold. Someone to enact my curse."

"Regina" Belle concluded. He nodded.

"Indeed. She tricked my out of our deal, I won't speak of how, not now at least, but the chips still fell that way in the end, and I rid Regina of her mother's influence. Regardless of her origins, she's dangerous. Very dangerous. Similar as she and Regina are, they're threats for exactly opposite reasons. Regina's dangerous because of what she feels, because of her heart. Cora is dangerous because she has no heart. She removed it herself, citing it her only weakness."

Despite not looking at her directly, he could see his paramour go pale at the concept. His hand found hers. It went unsaid that he would protect her at all costs. Even if that meant dueling with Cora, or more pleasantly, murdering Hook in whatever hospital bed he was currently occupying. He'd have to look into that.

"Well" he said as the approached the town hall, given a wide berth by the surrounding people who gave him terrified and suspicious looks as they passed. "Let's see what it is Sheriff Swan and her parents have to say about the situation. And why they saw fit to leave me out of it."

"Easy" Belle pressed, squeezing his hand. "I'm sure they had their reasons."

"They don't trust me" he agreed. "No matter. I'll find out what's going on."

By the time they stepped inside, the hall was nearly full to bursting with uneasy looking people. Towns fold filled all the chairs and spilled into the aisles, talking idle gossip in great bunches. Most of them look scared. And why wouldn't they be. A mad sorceress they knew little to nothing about was on the loose.

At the front of the room near the podium, Emma Swan and her parents could be seen talking in hushed voices. Emma herself was dressed in full sheriff gear, with her badge pinned to her jacket and a handgun at her hip. Her father wore the deputies badge, and a sword as well as a gun. None of them appeared to have gotten much sleep. Regina of all people sat in a chair ten paces to the right, looking incredibly out of place and shooting glares at whoever happened to look at her oddly.

Periodically Henry moved between the two parties, sitting with each a few minutes before moving back the other way. That was an interesting family dynamic that boy had. One mother the messiah, the other a near universally hated witch queen with murder rape and tyranny under her belt.

In a group the nuns, or the fairies, sat in a square section of seats headed by Mother Superior herself. Her face was impassive and smooth as slate. Rumple knew immediately she was hiding something beneath that mask.

Jefferson the Mad Hatter sat near the back with his daughter Grace, hands occasionally pawing at the scar that circumvented his throat. Mention of the name Cora had no doubt sent ice into his veins.

From somewhere near the front, a group consisting of dwarves and Jiminy Cricket, Ruby emerged, and approached the two of them.

"Belle" she greeted with an out of breath smile. "So glad you could make it."

"Of course" Belle acknowledged her friend with a hug. "You sounded urgent on the phone."

"Things are getting pretty urgent around here" Ruby conceded. "Been up half the night trying to keep people under control. Stop them from panicking."

"What happened, exactly?" Belle asked. Ruby shot a lightly veiled look of suspicion Gold's way before answering.

"Cora attacked, but was stopped by some kid claiming to be Henry from the future. He smells just like him. Hell, their blood even matches. Had Dr. Whale check. Told us last night to call this meeting, and to get ready for war."

This piqued Mr. Gold's interest.

"This time traveler claims to be young Henry, does he?" he half asked and half mused to himself aloud. "How intriguing."

"This meeting's mostly so Snow can tell people how to get ready" Ruby continued, ignoring the limping man. "To keep their families safe and what not. She's good at handling social situations like this. Princess, and all that."

Whatever else their conversation might have entailed was interrupted by said Princess climbing to her feet and approaching the microphone, clearing her throat a few times to get everyone's attention. Wordlessly Ruby slips away to rejoin the ranks of Snow's compatriots, and the couple are left standing in the single aisle as the meeting proper begins.

"Hello everyone" Snow begins diplomatically. There's a firmness of authority in her voice that had been completely absent during her tenure as the demure, meek Mary Margaret. Today the true side of her personality was shining through enough to hide to sleepless bags under her eyes and the nervous twitching from her fingers.

"I'm sorry to have called you all here on such short notice, but as you may have noticed by the current state of main street, this isn't exactly a normal situation." At this a few people in the crowd grumbled their complaints of destroyed cars, bugs left over in the electrical system, and of the imminent danger. Snow continued.

"Last night Storybrooke was visited by two very strange guests. The first of which was a dark sorceress called Cora. The older among you may recall her as Duchess Mills, wife to Prince Henry of Xavier's kingdom, and mother to Regina." She paused as a rabble of older nobility, or at least those who used to be nobility in the old world, let out harsh whispers of fright and anger. "She is a very dangerous individual, whose presence here can mean nothing good. She craves power, and there's little she won't do to get it, including killing any and all who get in the way of their goals.

The second visitor is a little harder to explain. Those of you who were outside the diner last night may have already heard his claims, but I'm going to repeat them now. He claims to be a future version of my grandson, henry." She laughed, though there was little humor in it. "It sounds ridiculous coming out of my mouth, I know, but there it is. Biologically speaking, he is who he says he is. His blood is a perfect match for Henrys. And he's recalled events and information that only Henry could possibly know" she glanced at her daughter and husband, who appeared just as on edge as she did. "That being said, he doesn't appear to be a threat to us. He claims to have knowledge of a coming conflict, one that involves Cora, and something he says is far, far worse."

As if right on cue, and it probably was on cue, a cloud of dark blue smoke bloomed into existence high above the audience. When it cleared, there was Hank, floating in midair, white cloak billowing out behind him like a cape.

"Thank you, grandma" he called in a magically enhanced voice that could be heard by all. "I'll take it from here."

The crowd parted as he descended from the air, landing with a click of his metal boots.

He clapped his hands together, taking in the watchers.

"My name is Henry Daniel Mills" he began his introductions. "Son of Regina Mills and Emma Swan. But you people can call me Hank. It'd be much too confusing with two people called Henry around here. Even if one of us is twice the other's height and has a voice ten times as deep. Like my grandmother said, I am from the future, believe it or not. And I can tell a good deal of you don't believe me. With very good reason. I must sound like a crazy person right now, and flying, just a few second ago. No big deal though, I'm used to being called crazy.

Crazy or not though, the threat facing us right now is very real. That's why I'm here. Both to warn you of it, and to help you face it. But before I get into that, I want to cover something else." Turning, he pointed towards Regina, whose eyes widened alarmingly at the sudden attention. "Many of you may be, and I know who you are, I'm from the future remember, be considering armed retaliation against my mother for the crimes she's committed against you in the past. I can hardly blame you for your anger. She did wrong you. But that being said, any and all those who attempt to raise a hand against her, that includes pitchforks and torches by the way, I will personally put a stop to."

He paused, and there was a severity to his voice that showed just how serious a threat this was.

"The threat I speak of is not only Cora, who's a threat enough by herself, but is darkness itself. I can't accurately describe what that means, but you all have a right to know what's coming. You have to prepare. Be ready to face it when it comes. And I'm going to help you do it. With every bit of power I have. As I speak, my associate Liir is off consolidating the few allies and assets we've managed to acquire while in this time period. Now each of you has to get ready. Arm yourselves, get prepared."

"And why should we trust you?"

Attention whirred away from Hank to rest on Jefferson, who had stood up among those seated. A hand still rested at his neck scar, and his eyes glittered with some of the madness that had earned him his title.

"Why should we trust you?" he repeated, voice rising, oblivious to the concerned look growing on Grace's face. "You come here, claiming to be able to help us, to be some kid we all know from town. And you may really be that kid. I don't much care. What I care about is that you're going up against _Cora. _I know Cora, kid. She lopped off my head and kept me prisoner for years. She's rutheless. Merciless. And you come here thinking you can just lead us against her? We don't know you. You'll probably end up walking us all into a slaughter. I repeat, why should we trust you?"

Hank smiled.

"You and I have had a strange relationship over the years, Jefferson" he began, taking a few steps towards the Hatter. "A few weeks ago, from your perspective at least, I convinced you to go find Grace. You were worried she'd hate you. Recent events for me have our relationship….a little bit strained. Not gonna get into that though. That'd be spoiler territory. I know for a fact we're going to allies in this next conflict, I remember it that way. But you raise a good point. Why should you trust me? Well, I'd hope it's because of fond memories of me as a kid. You know, the quirky kid who went around town with a book all the time? But otherwise, you should trust me because of what I can offer you."

Turning away from Jefferson, he addressed the crowd at large.

"For anyone who wants it, I can offer them a way back to the Enchanted Forest."

_That _definitely got people's attention. All civility left the people at once, and the hall exploded in a way of chatter. Some turned to each other in whispers, others shouted at Hank for more information, and others demanded to know if such an offer could be made good on.

Determined to not let the situation turn into an all out riot, Snow seized the microphone and turned the attention back to her.

"I've been back to the other world" she told the crowd. "My daughter and I were sucked through a portal just after the curse broke. And believe me when I say there's nothing left there for us. The ogres have returned, the farm land has decayed, the cities have crumbled. All that's there is monsters and ashes." Her tone was harsh, convicted. Inwardly, hank sighed. That was perhaps the one major conflict that had ever come between his grandparents. Whether or not they should return, or stay in this world.

"You're right, grandma" said Hank. "The place is in disarray. But the ogres have been driven back before, haven't they? Several times in fact. Cities can be rebuilt." He smiled, that same smile Henry had flashed her countless times during class together. "Things can be made right." He turned back to the crowd, effectively cutting off his grandmother's reply.

Anger boiled in Snow's temple. This kid was a great political speaker, if nothing else. He knew how to move a crowd in his favor. And how to keep them there.

"Ogres or not, I think a demonstration is in order. I can make a portal now. Here. For all of you to see. But I'll require some assistance. Would my mother's please step forward for a moment? Emma, Regina?"

Both women stared.

Emma, on the one hand, was just a little flabbergasted. She despised public speaking, even if she hadn't quite fucked up when it had been required of her. Like in high school, or when she'd been running for sheriff against Sydney Glass. But now, she was nervous for different reasons. She didn't trust this boy yet. No matter what the blood work said.

Nevertheless, she stood up and approached him. She'd see what he could do. Assess the situation, then decide whether or not this guy really was the boy she trusted above all others.

Regina on the other hand, perhaps motivated by her desperate, almost clinging emotions, stood at once and paced to Hanks side. She believed without a doubt who he was. And though she more than disliked standing before those she despised like this, she would do it, if just to stand near him. She glanced back at the young Henry as she walked, who gave her an encouraging smile. He believed. Well of course he did. Believing was sort of his thing. She smiled back.

Just to have him look at her without hatred was worth anything the world could throw at her. Anything.

Hank began addressing the crowd once more.

"Before, creating portals to and from this world was a difficult business. Even with portal jumping magic" he glanced at Jefferson "one couldn't come to this land. That was only possible with magic beans, which have been though extinct for at least nearly three hundred years. The reason a portal jumper couldn't get through here was because this is a land without magic. A portal needs magic on both sides to open up. Usually portals require specially enchanted objects. It can be done with sorcerers alone, but it requires a very specific technique, one that hasn't been used for millennia. A Circle.

You see, though magic is the same from user to user with most spells, the way human beings channel magic is slightly different from gender to gender. Men channel magic differently than women, though the technique of most magic is the same for either sex. This spell, a Gateway between realms, requires a circle, a collaboration of magic users who pool their power together. To create a Circle, there must be at least three people, always with at least one more woman than man. That's just how it works. Allow me to demonstrate."

Both Emma and Regina could feel what he did next. Though no one else could see them, tendrils of faint magic extended towards each of them from his form. As each tendril touched them, similar tendrils formed between the two of them, creating a shimmering triangle of energy.

Emma gasped audibly as the power within her welled to the surface. She'd never felt anything like this. Never used the magic that ran deep in her soul. Barriers seemed to keep the energy flowing between the three of them, and she felt sensations that could only be described as Hank asking permission to use her power. Permission to lead the Circle. She could feel him in that instant. Feel his every intent, and she saw no deception in him. He was everything he said he was. And so she let the power flow.

Hank tensed his finger, the power dripping through him like an IV of raw magic. He stepped towards a wall. He needed a place where everyone could see his work, as Gateways only opened on one side.

Raising a hand, he made a cutting motion through the air, and with his armored pinky drew some sort of symbol before his face.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then, with a terrible hssing sound a cut in the fabric of space was slice just inches from the wall. Nearly five feet down, the cut rotated in the air, sparking with light as a circular doorway in reality was opened against the wall.

Nearly ten feet tall and seven feet across, the doorway opened onto a vast forest brimming with life. A few bird flittered in through the doorway, and the smell of damp soil and condensation drifted inside.

The peoples gaping at the marvel before them was interrupted by a horrendous roaring noise from the forest's depths.

"Excuse me a moment" Hank said. "There's something I need to do. Be right back."

He stepped into the portal, and the assembled onlookers could only wait and watch.

Nearly sixty seconds passed, and from within the portal all they could hear was continued roars, and the muffled sounds of conversations. Who could he possibly be talking to in the forest?

When the sixiteith second passed, a figure who wasn't Hank came dashing through the portal. A women garbed in oriental armor with a curved sword at her hip rolled onto the ground, turning as she did so to fire an arrow that just barely missed Hank as he led a second woman, wearing a tattered gown, out of the portal.

The arrow found it's mark on an ogre's shoulder. The beast roared in pain, though it wasn't hindered. Kneeling as it tried to enter the gateway, the ogre roared again, letting loose a mass of spittle and rank breath. People screamed, for obvious reasons, as the ogres arms came clawing through, snatching at anything it could reach.

Turning on his heel, Hank made a hand gesture and the portal snapped out of existence, liberating the ogre of it's head and forearms in the process.

A splattering of blood dirtied the floor, along with the disembodied head and arms.

Standing, the oriental woman approached Hank and bowed.

"Whoever you are, I thank you" she said. "We owe you our lives."

"Mulan?" Belle said, stepping away from Mr. Gold. "Is that you?"

Mulan turned, and gasped at the sight.

"Belle!" she said almost disbelievingly. Aurora, however was far too winded to do much beyond slump to the ground in exhaustion.

"Allow me to introduce Fa Mulan of the Eastern Empire" Hank said as the two old friends embraced. "And Princess Aurora, also known as Sleeping Beauty to any of you Disney nuts out there."

It was then that Emma and Regina felt themselves being moved to the side by magic. Mr. Gold stepped towards the time traveler, menacing despite his obvious limp. He ignored the new coming women , his piercing gaze fixed pointedly on Hank.

"Who are you?" he asked in nearly a hiss. "Don't say you're the boy. Apart from that I mean. Who gave you this knowledge, this power?" He took another step forward, intimidatingly. Despite his own fear, which bubbled in the back of his throat, Hank could see that however afraid he was, Rumpelstiltskin was more afraid. By far.

He could tell already that he truly was Henry. And that was what frightened him the most. Before him he saw perhaps the fulfillment of the Seer's prophecy, that the boy who would lead him to his son would be his downfall. What else would he see in a teenager wielding such power and knowledge.

In a single fluid motion Hank removed his left gauntlet, revealing a marking covering the back of his left hand. A seven pointed star, encased in a circle.

Rumpelstiltskin stumbled backward, nearly shrieking as he tried to cover his eyes. Steam rose from his eyelids, and the smell of burning rose.

Not wanting to cause any further damage, Hank slipped the glove back on.

"You know what that symbol is, don't you?" he asked, ignoring the looks he was receiving from his family and younger self. Questions could be answered later. Now he needed to prove a point. "No one in your lifetime wore it, it's older even than you, but you still know it, don't you?"

"The Arcane Light" the older man grimaced, leaning heavily on his cane and wincing at the boys blindingly white cloak. "'Sigil of the Righteous'"

Hank nodded.

"I and six of my friend bear this mark and wear white cloaks. We are the seven pointed star. The Children of Light. You know what they used to stand for, so you know the laws by which I'm bound. That being said, when this meeting is over you're going to come with me, talk with me, and then do as I ask."

"And why is that, boy?!"

Rumpelstiltskin had regained his composure now. Wind picked up from nowhere as his magic flared unconsciously, making him all but oblivious to Belle's screamed protests.

"You think just because you bear a somewhat holy mark on your hand I'll obey you? That you have power over me?!"

"No" Hank replied calmly. "You'll do as I ask because of this."

He reached into his belt, and pulled from it a dagger.

Rumpelstiltskin's magic died at once. His jaw dropped. Fear became horrific terror.

Eighteen inches of curved steel, the dagger bearing the Dark One's name gave off a leering sheen in the early morning light.

Mother Superior stood up, aghast. She was prepared to stop him, Hank knew. She thought the naming would happen now. But that was for a later time.

To the astonishment of Rumpelstiltskin and all present, Hank gave no commands. Nor did he plunge the dagger into the cripples chest to claim his power. Instead, he turned the blade over in his hand, and offered it handle first to it's owner.

"Here" he said.

Hands shaking, the Dark One took his blade.

"Why?" he whispered.

"Because I want you to trust me" Hank answered. "I wanted to show you that even when I had complete and utter power you, even when I could've claimed your power for my own, I didn't. You're important to me, Mr. Gold, in a way you won't fully understand for a little while. And you're important to someone close to me. I want you on my side. Fate may have dictated that I play a part in your future, but it doesn't have to be in the way you think." He peered up at the viewing shimmering above the pawnbroker's head. A man drowning in a sea of blackness, only to be pulled to safely by two sets of hands. One set male, the other female.

Hank turned and began walking towards the doors. He gestured to his family and younger counterpart to follow.

"Belle, if you wouldn't mind would you make sure he gets to Regina's house in about half an hour? He should have calmed down by then. He has a lot to talk about with us."

**The main cast like Emma and Regina didn't get much to do in this chapter, but don't worry, you'll get all their reactions next time. They are just as important to this story as Hank is. Just you wait. **


End file.
